Culture Street

Film

These four brilliant films capture the reality of men and women struggling with memory loss. There are stellar performances by all the cast in these films.

On Golden PondThis is a classic with an incredible award-winning cast. Henry Fonda won the Golden Globe for Best Actor, Katherine Hepburn the Academy Award for Best Actress and Ernest Thompson the Academy Award for Best Script. It was nominated for a further seven Oscars including Jane Fonda, who played Chelsea, the daughter.

Ethel and Norman Thayer (Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn), continue the tradition of spending each summer at their cottage on a lake called Golden Pond, in the far reaches of northern New England. As they settle into their summer home, Norman's memory problems arise when he is unable to recognise several family photographs, which he copes with by frequently talking about death and growing old. They are visited by their only child (Jane Fonda), who is estranged from her father. She introduces her parents to her fiance Bill and his thirteen-year-old son Billy.

Chelsea discusses with Ethel her frustration over her relationship with her overbearing father, feeling that even though she lives thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, she still feels like she's answering to him. Before they depart for a European vacation, Chelsea and Bill ask the Thayers to permit Billy to stay with them while they have some time to themselves. Norman, seeming more senile and cynical than usual due to his 80th birthday and heart palpitations, agrees to Billy's staying. Ethel tells him that he's the sweetest man in the world, but she is the only one who knows it.

The Notebook

"I read to her and she remembers."

This adaptation of author Nicholas Sparks' bestselling novel revolves around Noah Calhoun's regular visits to a female patron (Allie) of an area nursing home. Rather than bore her with the inanities of everyday life, Calhoun reads from an old, faded notebook containing the sweeping account of a young couple whose love affair was tragically put to a halt after their separation in the midst of World War II. In the present, it is revealed that the elderly woman is Allie, who is suffering from Dementia. Noah is her husband, but Allie does not recognize him, nor remember any of the events Noah is reading to her.Stars James Garner, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams.

IrisStarring Kate Winslet, Judi Dench, and Hugh Bonneville, Iris tells the story of celebrated English author Iris Murdoch. Iris first became known as a brilliant young scholar at Oxford whose boundless spirit dazzled those around her. Then, during her remarkable career as a novelist and philosopher, she continued to prove herself a woman ahead of her time. Even in later life, as age and illness robbed Iris of her remarkable gifts, nothing could diminish her immense influence or weaken the lifelong bond she shared with her devoted husband.

Still Alice

Based on the best-selling novel, STILL ALICE brings to light the confronting, compelling and challenging world of early-onset dementia. Julianne Moore gives her Oscar-winning performance as Alice, a 50 year old Professor at Columbia; a gifted researcher and lecturer; a wife and mother of three grown children. On a day like any other she sets out for a run, taking the route she always runs but soon realises she has no idea how to find her way home. She is lost – a feeling that will only grow for her and those around her – as medical testing confirm she has Alzheimer’s Disease.